Conventionally, in case when a specific service such as maintenance or repair for a user's apparatus is required, the user used to make a contact with the nearest service station, e.g., by phone, to get the service required as soon as possible. Then, a service staff from the corresponding service station, e.g., service engineer, visits the user to provide services such as maintenance and the like, in response to the request from the user.
However, there may be a case when the user cannot get an immediate service needed since there is nobody currently available at the nearest service station and it will take too long for anybody to come to the user to give the service needed because everybody at the station is too busy. In this case, it may be quicker for the user to get a service from a remote service station, but it hasn't been easy for the user to obtain any information in this regard.
Further, if once a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or the like is out of order, it has to be stopped running for a long time while it being repaired, thereby resulting in deterioration of throughput. Therefore, it will be natural for a user to have the service such as repair provided as soon as possible such that a processing yield of the semiconductor can be enhanced and a level of a predetermined throughput can be maintained.
Still further, apparatus may have a complicated construction and there may be differences in the kinds of service to be offered, the times required for the service, or the like, depending on the capacity level of the service engineer, e.g., ability or skill. Accordingly, there certainly must be a user who wants to have a choice to select a service engineer.
Still further, there may be a user who prefers to select the service based on the service charge rather than the time or the capacity level of the service engineer; and there may be a user who wants to select an optimum service determined based on a combination of the aforementioned information.
As described above, the user's needs vary widely and there has been a strong demand for a development of an assisting system which will help for the user to select an optimum service satisfying needs.